National High School Top 50

Welcome back to another season of the Perfect Game and Rawlings National High School Team Rankings. Our initial rankings for the 2017 season are listed below.

Orange Lutheran (Calif.) enters the 2017 season ranked No. 1 in the country, and they boast a very talented and deep roster. Led by senior outfielder Garrett Mitchell, a PG All-American and UCLA signee, the lineup is loaded with high-end talent. Senior infielder Tristan Hanoian, a TCU recruit, and underclassmen Sawyer Chesley (Arizona) and Jasiah Dixon (USC) round out the middle of the lineup and should provide a lot of value on both offense and defense. The pitching staff is a bit young but they are led by senior lefthander Jason Farese, a San Diego signee, to anchor the rotation. With some younger contributions on the pitching staff, Orange Lutheran slots in as our No. 1 team for the season.

Familiar top programs round out the rest of the top 5 with Dallas Jesuit (Texas), Archbishop McCarthy (Fla.), Chaparral (Ariz.) and Huntington Beach (Calif.) all boasting elite talent and depth. All five of these teams have claims to be the top team in the country, and Dallas Jesuit and Archbishop McCarthy both came home with state championships last season. These five teams look to be competing for state championships this season and includes a big early season California matchup between No. 1 Orange Lutheran and No. 5 Huntington Beach in early March.

To access detailed features on each of the top 5 programs please visit the 2017 Perfect Game High School Preview Index, as linked above.

The states that are the usual suspects in terms of baseball hotbeds are well represented. California has the most schools with 11, Florida has nine while Texas and Georgia each have five schools. Although these four states make up a large portion of the rankings, 20 states are represented throughout the Top 50 preseason rankings.

Among the Top 50, 18 of the programs are reigning state champions. Dallas Jesuit, Archbishop McCarthy, Barbe (La.), Walton (Ga.), and Marjory Stoneman Douglas (Fla.) all come in the top 10 and are defending their state titles.

The 16 other states represented are from all reaches of the country. The Northeast, Southeast, and Southwest are all well-represented and should be very competitive regions.

Five Perfect Game All-Americans go to schools listed on among the top 10 teams. Garrett Mitchell (Orange Lutheran), Alejandro Toral (Archbishop McCarthy), Jacob Gonzalez (Chaparral), Mark Vientos (American Heritage) and Brady McConnell (Merritt Island) all participated in the PG All-American Game at Petco Park in San Diego last August and will look to carry their top-tier talent into the high school baseball season.

The rankings will fluctuate as the season begins and especially once the Northern teams start later in the spring. Many teams will rise and some will fall, but altogether the rankings will change once the teams start playing. The season is right around the corner and we hope you are as excited for the season to begin as we are.